Can you go wrong when show starts with DARK STAR?
Set 1- Dark Star>St.Stephen>The Eleven>Lovelight
The keyboard work is very psychedelic on this STAR. And of course Phil is ever present.
Stephen-great! Like the Classical sound of The Eleven (not one who liked the Calypso tinge added by Furthur) The jam in the Eleven does not need any tinkering with at all.
Is it Pigpen with the keys or is it Tom C.?
I haven't seen a lot of film from this era so I wonder how to distinguish who is playing what?
My gut says the more old school classical fugues belong to Tom C.
What a jam thru the 11. then - LOVELIGHT!
Set 2
Real short Bill Graham intro sounds like they were trying to get him to make a speech
I like hearing 'Doing that Rag' as a second set opener.
Cryptical> Other1> Cryptical-The urgency with which they play this tune just grips me.
Death Don't- Wow, nailed by GARCIA!
Probably they had to let this go for awhile because it can be extremely heavy if you are dealing with a loss.
Morning Dew-DEW is very much a big picture song .
Alligator-Some claim this is the longest Gator recorded but I would strongly disagree as Anthem of the Sun lists 'Caution' as a separate tune. And there is never any return to the Alligator after the original 4 minutes of Alligator.
Highlight here is the 'jam segment' running 23.13 To my ears it has a GDTRFB flavor infused into it.(once in awhile they used to play a few minutes of this in the later years before launching into something else but not as extended as we have before us.) runs 8 minutes.
Seems to be a break in recording and then another jam kicks in which is heavy on Garcia with lots of Phil backbone and drummers.
My guess is this is the actual 'Caution Jam' and this runs around 14 minutes.
Then comes the vocals from PIGPEN "Do not stop on Tracks"- I like the way every one jumps on board with this! After some "All you needs" they are off to the races again with another huge jam!
I listen to way more stuff from late 72 to end of 74 but there is something so raw about the period from 67-to end of 69. And it is probably 69 where the Dead have their sound right where they want it and again with an urgency that is captivating.
(As a deadhead I am probably the only one at work who smiles when a microphone feedbacks!) The SPACE segment became Feedback at times in the later years.
GOODNIGHT-This is a great way to conclude this set. No need to play a bunch of over the top rock and roll songs just a sweet BID YOU GOODNIGHT! (which cuts on the recording) I bet folks walked out of this gig floating on air!